54138: Ceilidh House in Garyvard

Tigh Thorcuill, home of Torquil Montgomery at 2 Garyvard, was the main ceilidh house for the village from the 1940s to the early 1970. The house was referred to as an t-soitheach (the ship)

There was a strict code regarding your position and where you were allowed to sit. Young people couldn’t sit on the sheis (the wooden bench) or close to the fire as this was the domain of the village elite, those who were well travelled, and you needed to be promoted before you even got to sit on a chair. Torcuil sat in a distinctive high backed chair with short legs and would order his tea.

The village elders would constantly taunt the younger members sending them out for peats for the fire or to fetch them a drink of water. They would drink down part of their drink and then empty the rest down the youngsters wellies. The young ones needed to be very quick with their hands to avoid the elders spitting into the fire as they bent down to put the peats on the fire and this was all very much part of the entertainment.

The young crowd of course had their own ways of getting back at the elders. Torcuil’s cows were always called Beauty and he only ever owned one at a time. In the evening the cow would be tied up in her stall which was on the other side of a very thin partition wall from where Torcuil sat in his chair. When the boys went out they used to throw stones at the cow so that the cow would get restless and start pushing at the flimsy wall causing Torcuil to raise concerns about what was upsetting Beauty. The boys even managed to get a small air pistol which they used to fire through the thatch aiming at the cow to make her jump.

Torcuil was very superstitious and the cockerel crowing before the early morning was bad luck so the cockerel also came in for some treatment from the boys.

The traditional tigh ceilidh was a male-dominated establishment and Torcuil had little time for women in the house in the evenings in case they broke the globes on his oil lamps, as they were supposed to be more rowdy than their male compatriots.

Alexander Macleod (Tigh Egan), 4 Garyvard was the ceilidh house before Torcuil’s became the popular haunt.